CHAPTER 23 THE MOTHER WHO DISAPPEARED
Nathan searched every exit.
The chapel doors remained locked.
Margaret had vanished through a passage known only to her.
Claire handed the unknown baby to Evelyn.
Then she seized Vanessa’s phone.
“Call your sister.”
“I don’t have her number.”
“She just contacted you.”
“The messages are routed through a private system.”
“Then find her.”
Vanessa stared at Claire.
“I’m trying.”
“No. You have been trying to survive. That is not the same thing.”
Claire’s voice rose for the first time.
“You knew another woman could use your face. You knew Cole was alive. You knew St. Orla existed.”
“I did not know they would take your daughter.”
“But you knew they were watching me.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Claire stepped closer.
“How long?”
“Since you were sixteen.”
Nathan’s head snapped toward her.
“What?”
“Cole assigned me to monitor Claire’s adoptive family.”
Claire stared at Vanessa.
“You watched me grow up?”
“I sent reports.”
“To Cole?”
“To Margaret.”
Claire struck her.
The sound echoed through the chapel.
Vanessa did not defend herself.
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve more.”
Gabriel discovered an old projector behind the altar.
A film reel remained inside.
He turned it on.
The image flickered against the stone wall.
A younger Evelyn appeared on the screen, lying inside a hospital room.
Three infants were placed beside her.
Two boys.
One girl.
The girl had a crescent-shaped mark beneath her shoulder.
Claire could no longer deny it.
Evelyn approached her.
“My daughter.”
Claire stepped away.
“Don’t call me that.”
Evelyn’s face crumpled.
“I know I have no right.”
“You didn’t raise me.”
“No.”
“You didn’t protect me.”
“I searched for you.”
“And then you stopped.”
“They told me you had died.”
“They told you everyone died.”
Gabriel watched the film in silence.
Gideon had been placed beside Evelyn for only seconds before a doctor removed him.
The doctor turned toward the camera.
It was Cole Whitmore.
Much younger.
But unmistakable.
Nathan watched his father carry Gideon away.
Behind Cole stood Margaret.
She held the infant girl.
Claire.
Claire looked at Nathan.
“Your mother carried me out.”
Nathan’s eyes filled with fury.
“She will answer for it.”
A radio hidden beneath one of the benches switched on.
Gideon’s voice filled the chapel.
“Margaret reached the sea tunnel.”
Nathan found the radio.
“Does she have the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Does Vera have the baby?”
“Yes.”
Claire took the radio.
“Let me hear my daughter.”
For several seconds, there was only static.
Then the newborn cried.
Claire closed her eyes.
Gideon spoke quietly.
“She is alive.”
“Bring her back.”
“Margaret is taking the ledger to Veronica.”
“Why?”
“To buy her freedom.”
“I don’t care about Margaret.”
“You should. She knows where Cole has been hiding.”
Nathan looked toward the stone passage beneath the graves.
“Open the doors.”
“One is already open.”
The oxygen tube beneath the fourth coffin suddenly tightened.
A hidden mechanism released.
The coffin moved aside, revealing a descending stairway.
Claire stepped toward it.
Gideon’s final words came through the radio.
“Your mother chose the ledger over your child once before.”
Claire stopped.
“What does that mean?”
The radio went silent.
At the bottom of the stairs, Margaret’s voice echoed through the darkness.
May you like
“Claire!”
Then came the sound of a gunshot.
